Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Sunday avoided criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump’s military strikes on Venezuela and capture of the Latin American nation’s president, as Tokyo grapples with how to respond to a move widely seen as having violated international law.
“Japan has consistently respected fundamental values and principles such as freedom, democracy and the rule of law,” Takaichi said in a post on X, hours after other Group of Seven leaders weighed in.
“In response to the situation in Venezuela, the Japanese government, under my direction, is prioritizing the safety of Japanese nationals above all else while closely coordinating with relevant countries,” she added.
The prime minister did not directly mention Trump or the military strikes by the U.S., Japan’s top security ally.
Takaichi’s remarks echoed an earlier statement by the Foreign Ministry’s press secretary, Toshihiro Kitamura, who also stressed Tokyo’s consistent “respect for the principles of international law.”
U.S. special forces under orders from President Donald Trump seized Maduro from the presidential palace in Caracas and flew him out of the country Saturday in a daring operation that ultimately saw the deposed leader land in a New York jail.
Trump later said Venezuela would effectively be under U.S. control.
Critics said the move amounted to a gross violation of international law, while experts said the White House had muddied the legal issues by claiming the operation was both a targeted law enforcement mission and the potential prelude to long-term U.S. control of the country.
Some senior Japanese officials, including former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, voiced concern over the move — and the precedent it could set for China and others.
“The U.S. administration’s invasion of Venezuela constitutes a ‘change of the status quo by force’ itself, contradicting arguments used to condemn China and Russia,” Onodera, who currently serves as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s security research council, wrote on X.
“Should China attempt to change the status quo by force against Taiwan, even if the U.S. strongly opposes it, the Trump administration would struggle to rally international public opinion,” he added. “This raises concerns that East Asia could become increasingly unstable.”
Japan, the U.S. and other Western countries have voiced concern over rising Chinese military pressure on democratic Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
China, for its part, called the U.S. moves a “clear violation of international law and the basic norms in international relations and the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter.”
International law prohibits the use of force in international relations except for narrow exceptions such as authorization by the U.N. Security Council or in self-defense.